Bengaluru, June 9: They went on a flight together to Mumbai, but returned individually. Clearly wanting to hide their embarrassment following criticism by the media, the MLAs who were taken to Mumbai ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections, they returned to Bengaluru one by one in separate flights.

Several independent MLAs were taken to Mumbai by the Congress to avoid poaching by the BJP. There was widespread criticism in the media and hence each one of them decided to return a day in advance and put up a show that there was no resort politics involved.

Left together returned independently:

It was a clear ploy on part of these MLAs to return to the city individually. They wanted to show that they were not taken away to avoid poaching. M Vaidya, an MLA who returned from Mumbai put up a weak defence when he claimed innocence and also said none including the Chief Minister had tried to tell him to vote for the Congress.

Had these MLAs returned together, then it would have become clear that they were all whisked away to Mumbai to avoid poaching. By returning independently they felt that they had erased the doubts the people had about the resort politics that they had indulged in.

Meanwhile within the Congress there has been criticism for the Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah. Some Congress MLAs say it was the CM who had insisted on fielding a third candidate for the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress had no trouble in sending two of its candidates to the RS. However to elect the third candidate they were falling short by 12 and hence this entire drama of safe guarding the independents at a hotel in Mumbai had to be undertaken.